Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington last May.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington last May. (Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg)

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz told a Utah newspaper Wednesday that he was the target of a Winter Park man who threatened to hunt him down and hang him from a lamppost.

Charles Zachary Howard was arrested in March after he was accused of calling a congressman’s office in Washington, D.C., and leaving a voicemail filled with profanities and threats, according to federal court documents.

Until Wednesday, it was not clear which congressman Howard had allegedly targeted. Chaffetz, R-Utah, confirmed his involvement during an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune about lawmakers’ safety in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting at a baseball field in Virginia.

In the voicemail, Howard cited the KKK, Freemasons and Nazis and suggested the congressman should prepare for the “apocalypse,” prosecutors said.

“...We’re going to hunt your a-- down, wrap a rope around your neck and hang you from a lamppost,” part of the voicemail said.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Howard’s threatening voicemail was left March 8, one day after Chaffetz’s controversial comment that Americans might have to choose between an iPhone and paying for their own health care. Howard’s attorney told the newspaper that his client was medically discharged from the Navy and suffers from mental illness.

Howard denied calling any members of Congress, but federal authorities said they were able to track the call to his phone in Winter Park, court records show.

They also determined that he had called dozens of lawmakers from January to March.

Howard was charged with threatening to injure someone across state lines.